ON December 17, 2010, a young man set himself on fire in protest against the harsh conditions necessitated by poverty and unemployment that were prevailing in his country, Tunisia. That singular act might have been the trigger which released the pent-up feelings of the youth of Tunisia, manifested in street demonstrations.
At first, President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali did what many in his show would have done — he released the security agents to confront the demonstrators with brute force. As the days rolled by, it became more and more obvious that the demonstrators were not ready to be cowed into submission. The more they fell from the bullets and truncheons of the police, the more determined and uncontrollable they became.
As 2010 headed for a close, President Ben Ali began to adopt a defensive posture, having failed to suppress the uprising that was unfolding before him after many years of having had his own way.
Panic set in and Ben Ali began to cave in with a series of decisions. First, he reduced the prices of staple foods, whose high prices had triggered the demonstrations in the place. He also pledged not to contest the next election scheduled for 2014.
When the pressure did not show signs of easing, he declared a state of emergency, dissolved the government and promised new legislative elections within six months.
President Ben Ali’s reign had come to an abrupt end. On the day he announced his latest reforms, his Prime Minister, Mohammed Ghannouchi, was on air to announce his take-over of the administration.
Ben Ali’s reign came to an end as abruptly as that of Habib Bourguiba, the man he had succeeded in 1987, had. Bourguiba, who until that time had not experienced any serious challenge to his government, having led Tunisia to independence from French colonial rule in 1956, woke up one day and was told he was no longer President because he had grown senile.
The mantle fell on Ben Ali, who started well with a lot of economic and political reforms which made Tunisia, in comparative terms, a model democratic state in a region of monarchies and autocratic regimes.
With time, Ben Ali got consumed by power and began drifting towards the path of democratic dictatorship. First, he closed all doors to political dissent. Changes were made to the constitution which allowed him to extend his rule. He, therefore, contested elections in 2004 and 2009 with near absolute margins. Possibly, he would have contested the 2014 elections but for the uprising which became known as the Jasmine Revolution.
Ben Ali’s crime was not restricted to political intolerance and media repression, including Internet censorship. He was also accused of presiding over a corrupt regime of gigantic proportions, nepotism and what had been described as kleptocracy.
According to a study conducted by The Economist — Democracy Index of 2008 — Tunisia was ranked 141st out of 167 countries studied. In terms of freedom of the press, Tunisia was ranked 143rd out of 173 countries. Such was the situation that when the protests, led by industrial workers and professionals, gathered steam, there was little the state security apparatus could do about them.
Any hope that life will return to normalcy after Ben Ali had fled to Saudi Arabia is fading. Prime Minister Ghannouchi, who took over power from his former boss, is doing everything to placate the angry mob that has become a regular feature on the streets of Tunis without success.
First was the announcement that all political prisoners are to be freed and others granted amnesty; then the recognition given to all banned political groupings and the promise to hold free and fair elections within six months.
Tunisians will have none of these. They want to do away with Ben Ali and everything he represented on the political landscape of Tunisia.
Now the ripples of the Jasmine Revolution are being felt not only in North Africa but the whole of the Arab world where democracy has remained a distant dream in many countries.
The most important thing, however, is that what is happening in Tunisia is a signal to all dictatorships and other repressive regimes that no matter how hard and long you suppress the people and deny them their fundamental rights, the day of reckoning will come when the people’s power will prevail.
The Tunisian model has also shown that change — the real one — will come not through the goodwill of a few people wielding guns and declaring themselves redeemers, liberators or revolutionaries who, with time, constitute another group of oppressors, but through the collective will and resistance of the people.
As the legendary Robert Nester Marley said: “You can fool some people some time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.”
The war cry of the people of Tunisia now is: “Down with poverty, inflation, corruption, injustice, oppression, torture, fraud and tyranny” and the ripples will be felt in all other places where the interest of the majority is mortgaged for the comfort of a few.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
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